The ever expanding use of credit card transactions has given rise to a proliferation of wrongful and fraudulent practices by unauthorized persons. Such fraudulent practices are made possible, in large measure, by the nature of the formsets employed and the manner in which the customer identification information, as well as the particulars of the transaction, are physically applied thereto.
Typically, the credit card transaction formsets consist of at least two superposed paper slips and a duplicating medium slip between an adjacent pair of slips for simultaneously imprinting the transaction information on all of the slips. The transaction information includes, of course, the customer's credit card identification and the details of the sale or purchase.
In their most commonly used form, the formsets furnished to the merchant or business establishment usually consist of a top or first transaction slip to be retained by the merchant, the merchant copy, a second slip to be given to the customer, the customer copy, and a third slip to be given to the bank or credit card issuer, the credit card issuer copy. Duplicating medium slips, typically "carbon paper" or the like, are usually interleaved between the first and second slips and between the second and third slips. The term "carbon paper" is used herein in its broadest sense to include pressure duplicating mediums of all types and pigmentations, such as the common black carbon sheets and the red coated surfaces of airplane tickets and the like.
A transaction is recorded by placing the customer's embossed credit card and a blank formset in a well-known image impressing machine. When the merchant slides the movable member of the machine thereover, the customer's credit information becomes visualized as a positive image on the top surfaces of the second and third slips and on the bottom surface of the first slip which is normally transparent or translucent. The carbon paper between the first and second slips is usually double-sided, thereby also to provide an image on the bottom surface of the first slip. The details of the transaction are then written on the top slip, as with a pencil or ball point pen, so that a positive image thereof is formed on all three transaction slips. After signature by the customer, the second or customer slip is removed from the formset and given to the customer, and the first and third record-keeping transaction slips are retained and forwarded as required. The carbon paper slips are usually simply discarded into a waste container for disposal.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that during the described process of imprinting positive images on the transaction slips, identical but negative images of all of the information are formed on the carbon paper slips. It is now recognized that in the hands of unscrupulous persons, the discarded carbon paper slips provide the essential customer identification information used to make fraudulent and unauthorized purchases. Seemingly, a primary solution to the problem of fraudulent purchases is readily achievable, namely, insuring that the discarded image-bearing carbon paper slips do not fall into unauthorized hands. However, that solution has proved at best only partially successful.
One suggested solution has been to hand the entire carbon paper slips to the customer, together with his transaction slip copy. This is objectionable because it requires an explanation by the busy waiter or clerk and can result in staining of the customer's hands and clothing.
Another proposal has been the elimination of carbon paper slips and the use of transaction slips coated with known microencapsulated dyes and the like. However, the cost of carbonless formsets is substantially higher and that increased cost has not been found acceptable or justified for the many millions of credit card transactions effected daily.
Another proposal, as well as a description of the magnitude of the fraud problem, is offered in U.S. Pat. No. 4,403,793. According to that proposal, the two carbon paper slips are integrated into a subassembly with the customer's slip copy at the normally free edges of those slips. At a point closer to the inner edges of the carbon paper slips, those slips are formed with lines of perforations that intersect the area where the credit card information is impressed. When the customer's copy is removed from the formset, the carbon paper slips tear off at the perforations so that a portion of the customer identification information remains with the formset stub. Thereafter, the customer's slip copy is removed from the associated portions of the carbon paper slips and handed to the customer, and the carbon portions are discarded. That formset construction is not only relatively complex, but there still exists the possibility of unauthorized mating of the discarded carbon paper stubs and carbon paper slip portions to provide complete customer identification information.
Other aspects of the fraudulent use and/or improper alteration of multiple forms are discussed in my co-pending application, Ser. No. 425,064, filed Sept. 30, 1982, and entitled "Tamper-Resisting Negotiable Instruments Containing A Transparent Verifying Web." One element of the forms disclosed therein is a slip coated on both its top and bottom surfaces. The top surface visualizes a negative image and impresses a positive image on the bottom surface of a transparent or translucent slip above it. The bottom surface is coated, as with a red transferring medium, and produces a positive image on the slip beneath it. The product of that application eliminates the type of fraud problem which is possible with conventional credit card formsets. However, the increased cost of using such double coated slips may be objectionable, even though the system of that application does avoid the fraud problem discussed above.
Improved, secure, and satisfactory solutions to the fraud problem as described above are to be desired.